Shafilea Ahmed's parents sentenced to at least 25 years in jail for her murder

14:35, 13 August 2012

ByManchester Evening News

Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed were both found guilty of murder at Chester Crown Court today after suffocating their 'Westernised' teenage daughter Shafilea in an apparent 'honour killing'. They were jailed for at least 25 years each.

Trial judge Mr Justice Roderick Evans told them: "Your concern about being shamed in your community was greater than the love of your child."

The judge asked them: "What was it that brought you two, her parents, the people who had given her life, to the point of killing her?"

He continued: "You chose to bring up your family in Warrington but although you lived in Warrington your social and cultural attitudes were those of rural Pakistan and it was those which you imposed upon your children.

"Shafilea was a determined, able and ambitious girl who wanted to live a life which was normal in the country and in the town in which you had chosen to live and bring up your children.

"However, you could not tolerate the life that Shafilea wanted to live.

"You wanted your family to live in Pakistan in Warrington.

"Although she went to local schools, you objected to her socialising with girls from what has been referred to as the white community.

"You objected to her wearing western clothes and you objected to her having contact with boys.

"She was being squeezed between two cultures, the culture and way of life that she saw around her and wanted to embrace, and the culture and way of life you wanted to impose on her."

Video below: Shafilea Ahmed at a family wedding in Pakistan in February 2003. She is wearing a white top with a blue sash ...

Shafilea's sister Alesha told the jury at Chester Crown Court her parents pushed Shafilea onto the settee in their house and she heard her mother say 'just finish it here' as they forced a plastic bag into the teenager's mouth and killed her in front of their other children.

Iftikhar Ahmed stood impassively as the verdicts were given.

Mrs Ahmed wiped tears from her eyes with a tissue.

Their children Junyad, Mevish and the youngest, who cannot be named for legal reasons, all broke down in tears.

Mevish Ahmed put her head in her hands and wept as the judge began discussing sentencing.

Mr Justice Roderick Evans said he would pass sentence at 2.15pm today.

As Iftikhar Ahmed was taken down to the cells, he turned to police officers sitting nearby and said: "**** off."

The seven men and five women of the jury returned two unanimous verdicts after deliberating for around 11 hours.

Earlier the trial heard Alesha say her parents repeatedly attacked and abused Shafilea as she grew up, torn between the allure of a Western lifestyle and their demands that she wear traditional clothes and agree to an arranged marriage.

Crying in the witness box, Alesha told the trial her parents held a terrified Shafilea down on the settee in their living room as the plastic bag was forced into her mouth.

"You could tell she was gasping for air," she said before adding that Shafilea "wet herself because she was struggling so much".

Asked what happened next, she told the court: "That was it, she was gone."

Alesha went on to describe how the other children ran upstairs to their bedrooms in shock and she saw her father carry Shafilea's body to the car wrapped in a blanket.

The children were later told to say nothing to the authorities amid a fear that they would suffer the same fate as their sister.

Shafilea's decomposed remains were discovered in the River Kent in Cumbria in February 2004.

It was not until 2010 that Alesha provided the 'final piece of the puzzle' about her death, the prosecution said.

Alesha's version of events was corroborated in writings her younger sister Mevish gave to her friend Shaheen Munir in 2008, which emerged shortly after the start of Alesha's evidence.

Mevish, who supported her parents' defence, said the writings were a 'fiction' which Alesha used to base her story on.

Speaking after the verdicts, Shafilea's close friend, Melissa Powner, read a statement to the media in which she paid tribute to the teenager and spoke about the pain of having to watch as her killers roamed free.

Miss Powner said: "We have waited for this day for many years.

"We have watched as her killers roamed free.

"Yet today we heard those important words - words that have finally brought our friend the justice she deserves.

"Shafilea was a caring, high-spirited and brave young lady - who, even in her toughest times, always strived to remain positive and hopeful that one day she too would be able to live the peaceful and happy life that she deserved.

"Shafilea was an amazing friend, who, no matter what her own situation was, would always strive to look out for others - a quality that we truly miss.

"We would cry together, laugh together and even on the odd occasion would sit, rushing some last-minute homework before next period (but that was not very often, as she was usually the goodie two-shoes that completed it on time!).

"Shafilea had a great sense of humour, a fun personality and great smile - and, although a cliched saying, she really could light up a room with her presence; therefore, I believe I speak for many when I say she is and always will be sadly missed."

She added: "Shafilea was an extremely intelligent young lady who we have no doubt would have accomplished her personal ambitions of becoming a lawyer - yet this opportunity was unfairly snatched away from her when her life was ruthlessly taken for reasons we cannot even begin to comprehend, reasons that, still, other young girls like Shafilea have to face on a daily basis behind closed doors.

"If there is one thing that we pray will come from this, it is that her beautiful face and tragic story will inspire others to seek help and make them realise that this kind of vile treatment, no matter what culture or background they are from, is not acceptable and there is a way out."

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Manchester-based Ramadhan Foundation, said: "Justice has finally been done. It's taken a long time for this case to be resolved so we pay tribute to the police and the courts.

"The strong message goes out and should be very clear: if you engage in honour killings, if you engage in forced marriages, you will be caught and brought to justice."

"Honour killings go against Islam. Islam totally forbids honour killings, it forbids forced marriages and if anybody thinks somehow that they are doing these actions as a result of their faith, then they are seriously misguided. I have spoken to a lot of Muslim scholars and it's very clear that these people should not be behaving in this way.

"We should not be forcing our sons and daughters to marry people."

He added: "As a parent, I cannot begin to think and comprehend how a parent would go about and kill their children. I just can't comprehend that and only these two people will be able to say why they did what they did.

"It's wrong. It's morally wrong. It's Islamically wrong and it's just beyond belief and I think - and the message should go out - that if you engage in these sorts of crimes, then you will pay a very heavy price."

He said: "Anybody with an ounce of humanity would be disgusted by what's happened in this case.

"Shafilea Ahmed - if she was westernised, whatever - didn't deserve to die and to be killed at the hands of her parents. It's absolutely deeply disgusting and people in the community are disgusted by that and we pray that her wider family in the community seek some comfort that justice has been done."

Mr Shafiq said he agreed with the recent change in the law which made forced marriages illegal, adding: "I have always campaigned for forced marriages to be made illegal. We should all accept that nobody should be forced into marriage and the law should recognise that.

"In the past, parents have forced their children to marry whoever and have got away with that because it was not a criminal offence."

Mr Shafiq said things have been slowly improving over the years when it comes to the two cultures living side by side.

He said: "It's completely different to what it was like 20 years ago when I was growing up and we've still got a long way to go. It is a challenge but we need to confront this. We need to see more imams confront this, community leaders need to be outspoken. There should be no hiding place for forced marriages in our country."

Previous Articles

A couple who killed their 'westernised' teenage daughter because they believed she had brought shame on the family were convicted of her murder today - nine years after the brutal killing. Iftikhar Ahmed, 52, and his wife Farzana, 49, of Liverpool Road, Warrington, Cheshire, suffocated Shafilea, 17, with a plastic bag in 2003 in an apparent 'honour killing'.

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